A ten-part series examining the seamier and less overt aspects of Victorian life. 5: The Opium Eaters by ERIC EWENS
Infinite incoherence, ropes of sand, gloomy incapacity of vital persuasion by some one plastic principle, that is the hideous incubus upon my mind always (Thomas de Quincey) Until the publication of de Quincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater the drug had been regarded much as we regard aspirin - used for babies, toothache, and with no social stigma attached to it. De Quincey changed all that. His very title introduced a note of guilt among Victorian addicts. with Other parts ROBIN BROWNE JOHN RUDDOCK , WILLIAM Fox
ALAN BARRY , OLWEN GRIFFITHS SHEILA GRANT , EVA STUART Producer MAURICE LEITCH